Rate My Professor Andrew Fairbairn

Professor Andrew Fairbairn is a prominent archaeobotanist and Professor in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland, where he serves as Major Convenor for Archaeology and Archaeological Science. He holds a BSc in Archaeology (1991), an MSc in Bio and Geoarchaeology (1992), and a PhD (2001) from University College London, specializing in plant macrofossil analysis to reconstruct past environments and economic practices. Fairbairn began his career in 1988 excavating Blawearie Cairn in Northumberland, UK, followed by roles as an environmental archaeologist with the Museum of London Archaeology Service (1993-1994) and the UCL Geoarchaeology Unit (1992-1993). He worked as an independent contractor (1994-2001), contributed to the Catalhöyük Research Project at Cambridge University (1999-2001), and held a research fellowship at the Australian National University's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (2001-2004). He joined the University of Queensland in January 2006.

Fairbairn's research focuses on ancient agriculture, plant use, and human environmental impact through the analysis of archaeological plant remains in Turkey, Italy (Pompeii), and Australasia. Key interests include the origins of agriculture in Central Anatolia and the development of state economies there, as well as plant macrofossil techniques for studying tree-fruit use and food production in Papua New Guinea. His influential publications include 'Investigating changing agricultural management practices at Kaman-Kalehöyük using grain weight analysis' (2025), 'Agriculture in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age of Asia Minor' (2021), 'Preliminary archaeobotanical investigations of plant production, consumption, and trade at middle bronze age Kultepe-Kanesh' (2014), and contributions to major works on Neolithic sites like Boncuklu and Çatalhöyük. He has secured significant funding, including an ARC Future Fellowship (2014-2019) for resource security and urbanism in the pre-Classical world, and ARC Discovery Projects on Anatolian Neolithic transitions and testing the Dark Emu hypothesis (2022-2026). With over 6,400 citations on Google Scholar, Fairbairn has shaped understandings of early farming, landscape change, and subsistence economies, advancing archaeobotanical methods globally.